The Hindu : Bush signs war bill

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Apr 17, 2003

International

International

Bush signs war bill

By Sridhar Krishnaswami

WASHINGTON APRIL 16. The United States President, George W. Bush, has signed an $80 billion spending bill for the war and related efforts in Iraq. But this appropriated money is only the initial tab for the conflict, which is expected to run into billions of dollars over the next several years.

Mr. Bush signed the bill in the Oval Office shortly before he left for St. Louis where he is expected to address employees of the Boeing Corporation on issues of national security, Iraq and the economy.

The bill came to the White House from Congress with a number of restrictions. While the White House wanted total control of $60 billion in the overall Pentagon budget of $63 billion, Capitol Hill agreed to only about one-fourth of that. And lawmakers have told Mr. Bush that he would have to notify Congress five days before any money is appropriated.

But Mr. Bush won some important concessions such as giving the Pentagon a role in the $2.5 billion humanitarian and reconstruction money that many lawmakers wanted the State Department to be in charge of. The final language of the Senate-House Bill gives the Defence Department a say along with other Government agencies.

The bill has allotted money for Homeland Security as well as about $3 billion for the airlines industry that is in deep trouble. After visiting the Boeing company, Mr. Bush will leave for Crawford, Texas, to spend the Easter weekend at his ranch, where he will receive the Prime Minister of Australia, John Howard and his wife early next month.

Australia was a major supporter of the U.S. in the war against Iraq and had sent troops as part of the coalition.

Meanwhile, the Bush administration today lowered the national threat level alert status from Orange to Yellow, signalling that the threat of terrorism linked to hostilities in Iraq had waned.

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